Generally, interior and exterior panels for buildings, especially installed on a roof, are configured to obtain heat-insulating and waterproofing effects. Such panels are conventionally made of stone or metal.
As the use of air conditioning and heating devices has sharply increased due to utilization of various electronic appliances through development in technologies and due to abnormal weather conditions caused by global warming or the like, power consumption has also increased considerably, thus urgently requiring global efforts to solve the problems.
A solution to reduce user cost burden due the increased power consumption, along with solving the above problems is to utilize solar cells.
Solar cells are a representative means for solving problems occurring due to increased power consumption by unlimitedly generating electricity using solar light so as to supply power required to maintain buildings.
Although the generating efficiency of such solar cells has considerably increased due to significant developments in technology, it still has not reached a satisfactory level. Thus, in order to utilize currently available solar cells, a large installation space is required.
In order to solve this spatial constraint, solar cell modules are utilized as exterior materials in buildings by integrally installing them onto a roof, an outer wall, etc. of a building.
Korean Patent No. 10-0869655 (published on Nov. 12, 2008) discloses a solar cell-equipped panel which is usable as an exterior material for buildings, such as materials constituting a roof or an outer wall of a building. The Patent Publication is directed to a solar cell module for a roof panel, which is installed on a roof panel or the like in a building so as to collect solar energy, and a solar energy collecting device using the same.
Further, a solar cell module and a roof material incorporating the same are disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0251069 (published on Jan. 10, 2000), wherein the solar cell module includes a photovoltaic device fixed to an reinforcing plate, a plurality of junction boxes provided to the reinforcing plate to draw electric power from the photovoltaic device to the outside, first spacer members having a height higher than the junction box and arranged along opposite sides of the reinforcing plate, and a second spacer member arranged between the junction boxes. In this configuration, when the solar cell module is installed on a roof, the first spacer members are fixed onto a roof board, and a space defined between the roof material and the roof board is exposed to the outside so that the space communicates with the inside of a building at a ridge of the panel.
Further, an energy harvesting system installed onto a roof construction is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0085112 (published on Aug. 6, 2009), wherein the energy harvesting system includes one or more solar cell panels fixed to a roof system component, wherein the solar cell panel is installed to the roof system component using a hook-loop fixture means.
Further, a roof incorporating a solar cell is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0989599 (published on Oct. 25, 2010), wherein the roof includes at least one roof material, which includes a plurality of solar cells electrically connected together, a plurality of interconnections connecting the solar cells, and a junction box bonding to the solar cell and embedded with interconnections, wherein adjoining roof materials are coupled together electrically in a male-female connection, thereby improving power output while facilitating construction.
However, all of the described conventional techniques require a separate junction box (space members) to accommodate a plurality of interconnections for supplying electricity generated from the solar cell (module), resulting in spatial constraints, complicated manufacturing, and difficult installation of the roof material (hereinafter generally referred to as a ‘panel’) due to complex wiring.